Homage to Rudolf Nureyev, Opéra Garnier, Paris

Paris honours Nureyev's memory

Wouldn't we expect Paris to present the best of the tributes being paid internationally to mark 10 years since Rudolf Nureyev's death? The city was where he chose liberty, then returned repeatedly as star dancer, choreographer and producer. There, too, his career reached its great climax with the years he spent as director of the Ballet de l'Opéra. And from what the company's present staff and leading dancers say in the programme book of their memorial gala – that they think of him daily to follow his precepts and policies – we may reckon that, effectively, this is still his creation.

All the same, it was right to begin with a reminder of what he inherited in the way of history and strength: the traditional Défilé, a grand procession of some 250 dancers gradually filling the stage, starting with the youngest pupil from the school and ending with the most senior stars, all marching from behind the rear wall right down to the front to salute their public and, this time, also by implication their late master. An amazing sight.

The rest of this immense show (it ran more than 4 hours) entirely comprised works staged by or for Nureyev. In a way, the most impressive items were two numbers for the corps de ballet. The 32 women of the Shades scene from La Bayadère are moderately familiar, although we don't often nowadays see their long entry with its repeated multiple arabesques so well done.

Something more rare is the polonaise from Nureyev's Swan Lake, set as a complex virtuoso dance for 16 men and brilliantly performed. That's the richness a choreographer of daring can draw from a superb ensemble company.

Another highlight was provided by Nureyev's two big discoveries on becoming director, Laurent Hilaire and Manuel Legris, the first to benefit from his insisting on powers to supersede the formerly rigid hierarchy. Now risen to head the troupe, they looked overcome, moved and thrilled (as were their audience) to be given for the gala Maurice Béjart's setting of the Mahler Songs of a Wayfarer. A metaphor of life, achievement and death, it was danced by Nureyev around the world, with various distinguished partners, and it was the last role he played at the Opéra Garnier. Without him it remains a rarity; this pair triumphed in it.

There was a tremendous reception, too, for two of Nureyev's finest later finds, Sylvie Guillem and Nicolas Le Riche, in Ashton's Marguerite and Armand. She was on her accustomed dramatic form, and he matched her, in spite of an injury incurred while dancing Winter Dreams at Covent Garden. Interesting also to see a double debut by Anthony Dowell: first time on the Paris stage and first as Armand's (surprisingly bitter) father.

Among many short extracts from Nureyev's classic productions, I found a duet from his Hollywood setting of Cinderella especially interesting for its smooth transition from comic to lyrical, beautifully carried off by Monique Loudières. An evocation of his baroque Bach-Suite 2 given by Kader Belarbi showed yet another aspect of Nureyev's multifarious interests; too bad we couldn't have had something from his highly original Manfred also, but a complete restaging of that (and maybe The Tempest too) must remain as something much wished for the earliest possible future.

Dispensing with decors, other than Cecil Beaton's essential big setting for Marguerite and Armand, made the sequences progress quickly, and the handsome costumes by various hands were sufficient reminder of Nureyev's obsession with design as part of a complete theatrical treatment of ballet.

Impracticable to name all the dancers whose contributions merited praise, but the company as a whole, and its hard-worked orchestra under Paul Connelly (with soloists Dietrich Henschel, baritone, and Christophe Coin, cello), must share equally the ovation they richly earned.